PM, CMs urged to check price hike

LAHORE
The workers, participating in an event organised by All Pakistan Workers Confederation on Friday, urged the prime minister and chief ministers of all the four provinces that they should check price-hike of essential commodities in the Ramazan and lower the raising prices of petrol.
They expressed concern over the tragic deaths of the poor citizens of Karachi due to serious loadshedding caused by Karachi Electric Supply Company and condemned the act of terrorism in Gujranwala leading to the deaths of Army officers.
They demanded the federal government to adopt an economic self-reliance and abolish the outdated feudalism in addition to develop the cheaper sources of electricity from hydel, coal and gas thermal power stations in the public sector for overcoming loadshedding for checking aggravating unemployment of working class and youth due to closure of industrial units instead of relaying upon the IMF and the World Bank. They condemned the policies of the IMF and the World Bank allowing rich to be richer and poor to be poorer and compelling the government to privatise profitable electricity public utilities companies since the experience of privatisation of Karachi, Multan and Rawalpindi had already miserably failed.
These demands were raised in a resolution passed on Friday in a meeting of trade union representatives and workers held at the Bakhtiar Labour Hall Lahore under the aegis of All Pakistan Worker Confederation.
On this occasion, veteran trade union leader Khurshid Ahmed, General Secretary of the Confederation, addressing the workers, urged them to continue a concerted struggle through strengthening their unity and defeat the parochial and ethnic and religious extremist forces and establish an egalitarian society free from exploitation.
The meeting was also addressed by Rubina Jameel, President of the Confederation, Akbar Khan, Additional General Secretary, Yousaf Baloch, Chairman, Osama Tariq, Secretary, Ch. Muhammad Anwar, President, Railway Workers Union, Muzaffar Hussain, Regional Secretary, All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union (CBA), Niaz Khan, Khushi Muhammad Khokhar and Salahuddin Ayubi.
By another resolution, the workers expressed concern over the decision of the National Assembly to allow free international travel on PIA at the expense of exchequer while the nation was facing great challenges of rising poverty, ignorance and unemployment in the country which required to be eliminated at the earliest.